TOP TEN New and Updated Available Internships
Norris Center for Natural History
Norris Center Internships
The Norris Center welcomes students who are interested in natural history and want to get hands-on experience with a natural history collection in a meaningful way. 2-unit and 5-unit internships are available to students interested in creating their own projects or continuing long term projects. Past projects have included taxidermy, creation of exhibits, cataloging various collections, creating online natural history resources, teaching classes, leading hikes for campus groups, and writing natural history based books/curriculum. We have a diverse collection including an herbarium, and collections of birds, herps, fish, skulls, mammals, insects, etc. at your disposal to work with. Successful interns will have an interest in natural history and enthusiasm for learning.
- Herbarium Internship- learn about plants in the museum
- Taxidermy Internship- learn about how to prepare specimens for the museum
- Bird-window Collision Internship- conduct research to help decrease bird-window collisions
- Natural History Museum Management and Curation- learn the management and curation of the natural history museum
- Museum Education and Outreach- conduct outreach and museum education on campus and in the community
-
Norris Center Taxidermy Internship
Contact: Chris Lay, cml@ucsc.edu, (831) 459-4763
The taxidermy intern will be crucial in helping add to, and maintain, our current collections. The intern will be trained in how to skin, dry, document and properly preserve bird, and possibly mammal, specimens over the course of the quarter. According to a detailed protocol, the intern will work to create scientific specimens from previously collected animals to add to the museum’s collections.
Homeless Garden Project
Homeless Garden Project Internship
Contact: Omar Guzman, omarg@homelessgardenproject.org
The Homeless Garden Project provides job training on a 2.5 acre organic farm and its enterprises, to homeless individuals in the Santa Cruz area. We run a 60 member CSA (May through October) and have a retail store near downtown. Interns are encouraged to set their own goals and create a project that will leave a lasting impression on the organization, with unlimited access to the knowledge of the farm workers and agency staff as well as other agencies we work closely with. Tasks can include, but are not limited to: everyday farm maintenance activities – bed clearing, planting out, greenhouse propagation, irrigation, etc.; planning and teaching a workshop to crew and public participants; fundraising/grant writing; administrative assistance; cooking.
For more information, please visit the Homeless Garden Project website.
Younger Lagoon Reserve Habitat Resoration Field Crew
Younger Lagoon Reserve Habitat Resoration Field Crew
This is located at the UCSC Coastal Campus
Contact: Eric Medina eimedina@ucsc.edu 707-237-1245 (cell)
The UCSC Natural Reserves Office manages five natural reserves that are set aside for teaching, research and public education. We sponsor interns every quarter, including summer, to work at Younger Lagoon Reserve on our Habitat Restoration Field Crew. Student interns work outside among herons, hawks, and coyotes and pull invasive weeds, collect native seeds, propagate and plant native seedlings, maintain existing restoration sites, cut back trails, and conduct ecological monitoring throughout the year.
Dung Beetle Internship, Fall, Winter, Spring
Dung Beetle Research
Contact: Suzanne Lipton, suzannelipton@ucsc.edu
Interested in doing soils lab work and learning about dung beetles? Come
help out with this project that examines how dung beetles influence the soil
microbial community and soil organic carbon and nitrogen content in grazed
pasturelands of California’s central coast region. Following up on data
collected in the field in the spring and summer, intern work will include
learning to wet sieve soils into different sizes and prepare them for carbon
and nitrogen elemental analysis. Interns with prior experience in DNA
extractions may also help with DNA extractions from soils. Reach out to
Suzanne Lipton at suzannelipton@ucsc.edu to apply.
Ants in Tropical Forest Restoration Research
Forest Restoration Research Intern
Contact: Christina Blebea, cblebea@ucsc.edu
Do you want entomological lab work experience? Sign up to assist Graduate Student Christina Blebea with research on ant communities in tropical forest restoration! We’re discovering how ant assemblages change during restoration. Students will get hands-on experience with insects in the lab, learning how to prepare specimens and collect morphometric data. No experience is required.
Santa Cruz Mountains Reserve
2 Unit Internship
- Bird Point Counts and Behavioral Studies
- Woodrat Midden Mapping
- Invasive Plant Monitoring
- Wildfire Vegetation/ Habitat Monitoring
No previous internship or work experience is required!
6-hour shift every week (9 am - 3:00 pm). Options are available Tuesday - Friday.
Sprout Up
Sprout Up Internship Opportunities
The listing is also found on Environmental Education tab.
Sprout Up is a project of Environmental Volunteers founded in 2009 by undergraduates to instill a love for learning and an ethic of sustainability in our youth. Our environmental science & sustainability program links teams of college-student instructors with 1st and 2nd grade classrooms for weekly activities, experiments, and discussions that explore the relationship between humans and the natural world.
In the past decade, Sprout Up has grown from teaching 25 students in a single classroom in Santa Barbara to teaching more than 30,000 students across California and in New York City! We have also provided leadership development and training to over 3,500 college- student volunteers.
We're excited to grow our organization into new colleges and universities across the country, and we invite motivated college students to get involved!
Contact: Kendall Post, kendall@sproutup.org
Contact: Mark (he, him) and Kristin (she, her) Sullivan (831) 295-0005, kjsullivan@
Interns would partner and collaborate with us on our sustainable Mother Earth project to assist in stewardship and restoration of our land by assisting in planting native plants, including indigenous sacred beauties of cultural significance. Project work and physical, hands-on activities may include the following: planting, maintenance, ground preparation, garden work, and invasive plant control.
UCSC Life Lab
School Garden Internships
The listing is also found in Environmental Education tab.
Contact: Cara-Alexandra Sundell, cara@lifelab.org
Come enjoy the Spring season in the garden and get school credit. Interns receive training in: Garden-based science education, working with children in an outdoor setting, organic gardening, garden development projects, environmental education, games, activities, and much more! Interns teach garden-based science to local 2nd-grade school groups.
Committee to Bridge the Gap
Environmental Policy Internship
Also Under Public Policy
Contact: Haakon Williams, h.williams@
committeetobridgethegap.org "Not accepting interns in Winter 2023, starts up again in Spring quarter"
Committee to Bridge the Gap is a non-profit environmental and nuclear policy organization focusing on issues of environmental justice, government transparency, superfund site remediation, and nuclear decommissioning, disarmament, safety and waste disposal. For nearly half a century, Committee to Bridge the Gap has been fighting—and winning—environmental battles that have local, national and international impact.
Our work is aimed at exposing and correcting the shortcuts taken by polluters and the government agencies which oversee them, and the unholy alliance which exists between them.
Students will engage in hands-on research in teams with experienced environmental policy staff. Collaboration between CBG and other organizations, policymakers, and established journalists is frequent. Students will learn the nitty-gritty of actually affecting environmental policy and make real contributions to the environment at the same time.
Current projects include research and policy work on behalf of environmental justice communities in San Francisco and Los Angeles that are burdened with toxic contamination, and research and advocacy work on federal issues relating to high-level nuclear waste. This internship will continue to be remote for the time being. Learn more about us here.
